EAF Author: Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1813-1871)

Henry Theodore
Tuckerman, born in Boston, was an essayist, travel writer, biographer, critic,
and poet. In 1833 he made his first trip abroad for health reasons, and after
touring Italy he returned to the US in 1834. This trip became the subject of his
first published volume,
The Italian Sketch Book. In 1837 he returned to
Europe, travelling to Gibraltar, Malta, Sicily, and Florence, and these experiences
shaped the contents of his next book,
Isabel, or Sicily, a Pilgrimage,
republished as
Sicily and Pilgrimage
in 1852. In 1845 he relocated from Boston
to New York, and in 1850 he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard.
He went on to publish
Characteristics of Literature illustrated by the Genius
of Distinguished Men;
The Optimist, a Collection of Essays;
The Spirit of Poetry, a collection of his poems; the travelogue
A Month
in England, which contains a description of the mania surrounding the reception
of Stowe's
Uncle Tom's Cabin; and
The Leaves from the Diary of a Dreamer,
which recounts personal anecdotes about Byron, Hawthorne, and Sismondi.